Netflix is set to feature another terrifying murder case from 1989 through Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which serves as the second installment under Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's Monster anthology series. Similar to its first season, the upcoming title is also expected to send shockwaves among viewers, exploring how Lyle and Erik planned to kill their parents.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is scheduled to arrive on Netflix on September 19, 2024, starring Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez and Nicholas Chavez as Lyle Menendez. This murder case gained widespread attention from the public since the brothers claimed their parents were physically abusing them.
Lyle and Erik were the only children of José and Kitty Menendez, with Lyle being two years older than Erik. Their story has been featured in several documentaries, and Netflix's Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will be the latest one to arrive.
Before his murder, José Menendez was a Hollywood executive, and his wife Kitty was a housewife, looking after their children. The family lived in Princeton, New Jersey, and a few years before the high-profile murder, the Menendez shifted to a grand mansion in Beverly Hills.
Why did Lyle and Erik Menendez kill their parents? Exploring case featured in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
What seemed like a perfect American family, turned out to be the most conflicted one. This is the story of Lyle and his younger brother Erik, convicted of killing their parents over alleged physical abuse.
Netflix's upcoming Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story from the makers of Dahmer will follow the controversial trial of the Menendez brothers, where they claimed to have endured physical and sexual abuse since childhood. However, the prosecutors believed that Lyle and Erik chose to eliminate their parents for the family's $14 million estate.
The brothers had a 12-gauge shotgun each, which they used while shooting their parents multiple times. While José was down after the shooting, Kitty tried to flee from their mansion but failed.
According to ABC News, Erik Menedez opened up about his relationship with José in a 1996 interview with Barbara Walters and said:
"[His father was] Brutal, painful, torturous, and yet I admired him, because he was so strong and he was everything that success was, that I was taught that success was."
The brothers enjoyed a luxurious life and were talented tennis players. While Lyle made a name in his university for playing varsity tennis, his younger brother Erik dreamt about attending the University of California, Los Angeles.
However, their terrifying action put an end to all of their dreams, leaving the Menedez brothers being called criminals. Throughout their trials, which will be explored in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the brothers kept saying that José had been s*xually assaulting them for years.
When did the police arrest Lyle and Erik Menendez after the murder?
On August 20, 1989, when Lyle and Erik succeded in killing their parents, they immediately called the police. Not to turn themselves in, but pretend that José and Kitty Menendez were found dead when the two arrived at the Beverly Hills mansion.
Following their claims, the police didn't suspect Lyle and Erik initially, but their anxiousness and odd behaviors alerted the investigators. Per CBS News, the Menendez brothers started spending the family's fortune on buying expensive watches and investing money in real estate and businesses.
Their reckless spending, followed by a tip from their psychologist L. Jerome Oziel's girlfriend revealed that Lyle and Erik killed their parents and an "audiotaped recording" could prove their crime in court. The police gathered enough evidence against the brothers, and in 1990 Lyle and Erik were put behind bars.
While Lyle was captured first, the authorities arrested Erik at an airport when he returned from Israel after playing a tennis tournament. The Menendez brothers were given life sentences in jail, and to date, they are serving their punishments.
Was the Menendez couple physically abusing their sons?
What made this case incredibly controversial isn't how Lyle and Erik murdered their parents, but what forced them to take this horrifying step. The brothers never denied killing José and Kitty, but also added that it was their father's brutality since childhood that left them with no other option.
Lyle claimed that he was being s*xually abused by José at the tender age of 6, and when Erik was born, he also became a subject to constant torture. While the prosecutors said their story is made up, Erik Menendez revealed in his A&E interview, what José did to him:
"He would have me massage him, and he would have me perform oral s*x on him. He would graphically describe to me how he would kill me if I ran away."
Despite the terrible crime, many believe that Lyle and Erik endured unbearable pain since childhood. The comment section of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story's first trailer on YouTube is riddled with netizens claiming that José was the real monster who never loved his children.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story hits Netflix on September 19, 2024.
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